Becoming a hero
by Ryukame
Summary: "Don't you get it? We're not this stupid bunch of rats that you can just kill off whenever. When you found us we were some crappy rag-tag bunch of kids. You could've killed us then, but here? Now? You've unleashed a force by your own hand. One that you can't control." "And it's going to crush you" This is the story, of the heroes of Elrios.
1. I'll make my own destiny

**A/N: So, at first this will not seem like an Elsword story, it takes a second to get started, I dreamed some of this up, and got part of the idea from how Raven was supposedly added to the game (if you read the comics they release you'll know what I mean). But pay attention to the descriptions and the names, you'll see it (I hope). Anyways, please enjoy!**

* * *

A boy with white hair and menacing purple eyes loomed over me, his hand set next to my head on the wall.

"You stupid bitch." He threw my glasses on the floor and stepped on them, a small crunch coming from his boot. "When I say give me your homework, I mean give me your homework," He leaned in closer, "not tomorrow, no the day after, now!" He slammed his hand against the wall for emphasis. I was on the vergre of tears, which only further fueled his rage, when my red-haired savior stepped in.

"Oh shut it Adam, you blow such hot air, one day you're gonna run out you know." Elesa stepped next to me, seperating his hand from my head. Adam opened his mouth to say something, but knew Elesa could at least back up her hot air. He shut his mouth and stalked away. Elesa turned to me, "You need to learn how to defend yourself." I shot into her arms and cried into her shoulder for the 5th time that week.

"Hey...now, now, I have no problem helping you out, let's say you and me go have some ice-" She stopped as her phone rang. "Now? Really?" She glanced at me, "There's no one else who can come in?" She sighed before hanging up, "Hey, I have to go into the shop quick, but at 8 o'clock you call me and we can watch a movie or something, ok?" I nodded my head wearily and we smiled.

"I-I-" She slapped me on the back, and I almost dropped my books.

"Y-y-y-y-y-y-you need to stop stuttering, Honoka, it's just me, we're friends, got it?" She smiled and pulled me into another hug. We had been friends since the 3rd grade. I was there for her when her brother up and disappeared. Even when she started becoming more popular, she never forgot about me.

"Yeah...I'll see you later, Elesa" She waved and ran off down the street to her job.

That was the last time I ever saw Elesa.

* * *

I sat staring at the T.V. Another night had gone by, 2 months now since she had disappeared with no trace. I turned off the monitor, and looked out the car window. Elesa was-is rather wealthy, enough to have a personal limo drive to and from wherever she wanted to go. She always gave me a ride, since my parents passed years ago and my bike got run over...by a certain limo.

We pulled up to the school, I briefly thanked the driver, and walked to my classroom, sulking with my head down. The teachers all gave me pitying looks, not even sympathetic, pity. "Oh that poor girl...no friends, no parents, bullied." Asses.

I went through the day as usual, however when I reached the end of it, I realized one thing that made it different. Adam had left me alone...all day. This legitimately worried me, Adam had to have been stabbed 40 bajillion times before he would not ask me for my homework. I ran into the library to use the phone, when I saw everyone staring at the television monitor.

Adam was kneeling on the screen, right in front of a burnt down home. The thing that caught me the most, the thing that made me keep watching, the thing that utterly terrified me, was his eyes. They no longer held a look of menace, of "I punch kittens and kick babies". It held a look of sheer, utter, insanity.

Adam disappeared the next day.

* * *

_**1 month**__ later..._

I looked down, at the billions of small people below me. I stood at the top of the skyscraper, sitting on the edge of the rail, my feet dangling over the side. As much as I hated to admit it, the fact that Adam acknowledged me so much, even in the way he did, kept me going. It showed me someone knew who I was if anything. With him gone...I had nothing left really. I looked down again. I would be splattered, quite literally, all over the evening news. "Unknown Girl Took the Jump."

I leaned forward, and pushed off. I could feel the wind blowing my hair every which way. I had this sense of clarity, I could hear the sounds and gasps of everyone below me. I looked to the ground, watching it rush up to my face. But instead of meeting concrete...a blue flash, and what looked like a pair of dice floated before me, and I was whisked away into an unknown darkness.

* * *

"THIS is the new girl? Really? This is the last one we get? I can't beleive this crap."

"OI! Be polite, remember when Eve came, and you thought she was some wimp?"

"Would all of you be quiet? I'm trying to-" I heard a small crash as someone hit the ground.

My eyes slowly fluttered open, and instantly I felt the drumming in my head.

"HEY, guys! She's waking up!"

"Oh really? I had no idea." I heard something bang against a head. I sat up and fully opened my eyes, a hand on my head. A green haired woman stood in front of me, with a cheery smile.

"Hi there! You must be the new girl, we've been waiting for you to get up."

I put a hand on my head and hissed at the pain. I looked around at the surrounding forest. "Where...where am I..."

The woman backed up and I saw a small group beside her. One held a staff in her hand, another had some sort of prosthetic limb, another had 2 small toys floating beside her.

She grinned, her smile reaching from ear to ear. "Welcome to Elrios!"

I took one more look at them before passing out.

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**A/N: So uh...what do you all think? I know it started off weird...and slightly depressing...but this is just something i thought up to add to my dream...I want to turn it into something more than just this one chapter...so tell me what you think.**

**-AK**


	2. I'll make my own path

I stood in an endless void when i opened my eyes. Universes and Dimensions floated around me. Stars, galaxies, planets, an endless array of new worlds of places. I could barely make out a "wow" before I heard a voice echo throughout the darkness.

"Amazing isn't it? I thought so too, try living here for over 10,000 years though." A man clad in black, with small white and red trims on his...dress it looked like. He wore an odd neck brace, with chains and keys scattered on it. The most shocking feature, however, was the mask on his face, with a single, golden eye piercing out of it. He tossed a pair of dice from one hand to the other, blue in color. He saw my eye catch the dice, as I remembered the portal. "Yes, yes, it was me, cue the gasp from the audience."

"Why would you bring me here? Who are you? Who were those people?" I said, surprised at my confidence in front of this person. I could feel a small grin come from behind his mask.

"Why else? Like I said, I get rather bored here. It's nice to watch a band of adventurers tote about, saving the day from evil, it's like a little story." He walked around me in a small circle, "Hmm...Yes I think I picked quite nicely for this, as for your other questions..." He walked in front of me and did a small bow, "My name Is Glave, ruler of dimensions, time, space, the whole nine-yards." He threw a die at me, and just before it hit me it turned into a small mirror, displaying the green-haired woman I met earlier. "The people you met earlier are the others I've...chosen. You will travel with them on their adventure, you will fight, and attempt to save Elrios."

I stood there for a moment trying to gather my thoughts together. Finally I managed to whisper "You...kidnapped us...for a game?" He chuckled.

"No no no, it's not a game for you, you all could die, they have many times," He gave a crazed laugh, "that Raven boy got it _bad _last time. But for me this is...it's like a movie!" Ha laughed again at his own words. Meanwhile my rage boiled up inside me, I jumped at him, anger carrying more than courage. He simply snapped his finger, and froze me mid-air. He walked around me again. "That wasn't very nice..." I felt him trace his finger around my shoulder, under my armpit, then back to the top of my shoulder. He grabbed my arm, and with less than a flick he pulled it off, a clean line where he traced, no blood flew out.

"See, now this is some of my best work, a nice clean cut." He waved it infront of my face as shock filled my mind. I struggled desperately to move, scream, or do anything. He put my arm back where it was, sealing the cut with a wave of his hand. "I just wanted to show you that, I could literally move your face onto your ass." I felt myself un-freeze and land on the floor with a crash. Instantly I looked at my arm to make sure it was still there.

"You bas-" I felt my mouth freeze shut as he held a finger up. "No no," he said "I think we've wasted enough time." A portal opened up behind me, and he placed his shoe onto my chest. "Have fun!" With that, he kicked me into the portal.

* * *

I shot up with a gasp, feeling my lungs fill with air again. I looked around, hoping desperately for it to be my room; however it was just a small wooden room, with an end table and a small candle on it. I rubbed my eyes, and noticed a spread of clothes laid out for me. A black t-shirt with a pair of gray shorts. I threw on the clothes and poked my head out the door. It seemed to be a one-floor cabin, no utilities on the inside. Each room must be for someone to sleep in. I tried to sneak out, but felt a pair of arms wrap around me in a hug and pulled me in.

"There you are! You've been sleeping for EVER." Without looking I could hear the cheeriness in the voice and remembered who it was. After she let me out of the hug I turned around to face her directly. "Sorry, I didn't get the chance to properly introduce myself yesterday. I'm Rena," She did a small curtsy, "you ready to meet the rest of the gang? It's going to be a long day."

That moment time seemed to stretch out and stop. What was I getting myself into? I wasn't a fighter. Hell, the biggest fight I'd ever had was with my high school math teacher about a question I got wrong. Yet I was about to go and fight _demons_? I could walk away from this, I knew it, I could run, hide, live my life out in a little hole, whatever it was.

But then I remembered. I remembered every one of these people had been kidnapped. Stolen from their homes. They had families back home, waiting, begging for their return. I couldn't leave them, as much a coward as I was, I wouldn't leave them. I felt my courage well up in side of me, the desire to take back our lives, our homes. But most of all beat Glave. I felt my next words seal my fate, but not in a bad way. I wanted to say this, I wanted to help. I wanted to win.

"When do we get started?"

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**A/N: I swear it gets a lot more Elsword-y after this...just needed to get the main stuff out there. If you couldn't tell I think Glave is kind of an ass. Well...this is going to be difficult, not going to lie, the way I'm writing it will give me headaches later, and will probably seem like crap. So please offer advice, writing a story where there's basically a diety and getting it to all fit in...it's tough where I'm going. Enough rambling though, hopefully this chapter didn't suck. Hope you all keep reading! PLEASE REVIEW I NEED THE REVIEWS. Need to know how I'm doing with this, critique, compliments, it all helps!**

**-AK**


	3. I'll make my own friends

Rena walked me out of the house down to the small clearing, where I saw the man I met earlier with a prosthetic arm, slashing at a training dummy. As I got closer I saw it was definitely **not **a fake arm. It had a wicked looking claw at the end of it, with a small hole in the middle, probably for exhaust of heat. An array of red wires ran up the length of it to his shoulder, and those were covered with small metal brackets evenly spaced out.

"What do you want." His voice startled me, and frankly scared me. He had this odd way that made his question sound like a statement instead. He hadn't looked away from his target either.

Rena, however, seemed unfazed by his cool attitude. She ran up frombehind him and looped her arms around his stomach, squeezing herself against him. "Raaaaaveeeennnn, don't be so rude! You're supposed to be nice to new people!"

"Hello, Rena." I could have sworn at that moment I saw his face get just the slightest bit softer, if only for a brief second. "Hello, new person."

Rena giggled and let go of him, wrapping her arm around me and walking me away. "That's about as nice as he gets, don't worry though, he's a nice guy." I looked at her questioningly, and she laughed. _The hell is her definition of nice..._

I let out a small yelp as I tripped and fell into a small pile of mud. I looked down and saw my clothes were covered in mud. I heard a loud laugh behind me.

"This clutz is going to be our new teamate?" I heard more laughter and turned around to meet it. I saw a small red-headed boy, with a sword strapped to his back. "Oi! Clutz! I'm Elsword, and I can walk perfectly fine!" He ran around a little to emphasize his point. He was jogging back to us, but was clothes lined by a small purple stick.

"Hey, Eldork, be nicer to people." A girl with short purple hair stepped on Elsword to walk up and over him, but he grabbed her leg and pulled her down. The next few minutes was a chorus of "Idiot!"'s, "Tomboy!"'s, and various other insults (along with a large dust cloud), until Rena walked over and grabbed them both by their collars.

"Now now...what did we talk about you two?" I could tell from the looks on their faces that the womans' friendly tone betrayed her murderous aura. They both pleaded forgiveness to Rena, over exaggerating a little bit, if you ask me.

After the two had stood up and brushed their clothes off, Elsword stalked away, grumbling to himself, while the girl stayed back and curtsied. "I'm Aisha, a pleasure to me-" She was cut off as a small rock hit her in the back of the head, and she ran off. "Elsword I will kill you with my bare hands!"

Rena let out a long sigh, before turning to me and saying "The one with cute-purple hair is Aisha," she leaned in a little closer, "and admittedly she IS a bit of a tomboy." She pointed to her chest to exaggerate her meaning. "The red-head was Elsword, if you didn't catch that. He's actually got a sister who's...well she's basically an older him." Her face got darker for only a second. "She's been missing for years now...poor kid." She quickly changed back to her usual demeanor, "Shall we continue?"

Rena showed me to the armory, where I would be picking my weapon for our travels. I looked over this massive room of...well, rusty and crappy weapons. But one in particular caught my eye, a large cannon. It was white with small black diamond-shaped holes. I went to pick it up only to see why I should never touch that cannon.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" I heard a voice cry out, before I felt an immense force tackle me to the ground.

As soon as I felt the person get off me, I flipped around and propped myself up on my elbows. A small girl stood next to the cannon frantically checking its ports and exhausts.

I felt Rena's hand pick me up off the ground. "I want you to meet Chung Sei-" she cut herself off, "Chung, he's a bit...eccentric about his cannon." I was about to ask her why she cut herself off, when a different question entered my mind.

"He?" I looked back at the gir-boy, the boy, and saw he hadn't even noticed the world outside his cannon. Rena had burst out in laughter, apparently this happened a lot. A small girl with white hair walked in however, and slapped Chung. She looked cool and calm while doing it, as if training a pet.

"You are being rude to our new ally, show respect and dignity to new people." She stepped forward and bowed slightly. Her movements were fluid and smooth, elegant, but it looked...programmed, almost. "I am Eve, heir to the Nasodian race," she gestured to Chung, "I apol-". She was cut off as Rena started pinching her cheeks. "Rena I have asked politely a multitude of times that you not perform this action.

"Eve you are just TOO cute, how could I not?"

Eve blushed lightly before turning away and walking out of the small shed. She beckoned to Chung on her way out, and he followed.

I looked to Rena, who was cleaning up the mess Chungs' outburst had made. "Nasodian?

Rena laughed, a melodic sound, and looped her arm around me, pulling me into a one-sided hug. "We have a LOT to talk about. Me and the girls will explain it in the springs later."

My face grew red "S-Springs? Can't we just...do I have to?" Rena gave a sort of...squeal almost.

"You and Aisha are both so cute, embarrassed about being _nude._" She drew "nude" out, and made me cringe inside on the reasons I had to not want to be in such a state with a woman like Rena. I glared at her chest as we walked back outside. Rena had stopped snickering, and walked me out to the training grounds again. "I can introduce you to Ara at the spring, she's meditating right now."

I tried to stutter out a thank you, but Rena slapped a hand to her forehead. "Crap! I'm supposed to make dinner!" I turned and looked to the sky, I hadn't even noticed the sun had gone down. Rena was sprinting back to the small home when I turned around. "We'll figure everything out for you later!"

I looked at Raven, still training his blade, at Elsword and Aisha still barking at each other, at Eve sitting in the grass, tinkering with her drones, at Chung sitting next to her, asking her technical questions. I held my hands up to my face and wonderedhow I would fit in with this group of...adventurers? I think that's what Glave called them._  
_

The thought jolted through my head. How many of them knew about this? Which of them were actually from this world? Did I know any of these people? My thoughts drifted to...to...

...To who? I began to panic. I couldn't remember any of the names of the people I knew back home. My friends bright red hair stood out in my memory, a bully's psychotic eyes flashed through, but I couldn't remember any of them. My knees felt like jelly and I fell to the ground, almost ready to throw up. Where did I live? What was my name? Where did I go to school? What was I taking? Was I dream-

My rapid thoughts were silenced all at once by a metal hand on my shoulder. "The past will eat you alive if you think about it too much. You're here now. Make do with it." I turned around, watching Raven walk back to the house. I smiled softly, barely noticeable. I had a new found respect for the man who had treated me so coldly earlier.

_Fuck it._ I stood up and brushed the grass and dirt off my clothes, I looked like a mess. _Whoever I was in the past is gone_. I turned to the house, and knew that starting today, I would be a new person.

And the new girl would be damned if she was going to go crazy.

**A/N: So...here it is? I took so much time to do it, sorry about that, easily distracted. But...yeah, enjoy and review!**

**...*awkardly walks off stage***


	4. I'll make my own supper

After Raven gave me the pep...sentence, I started my walk back to the house. I was about to open the old wooden door when Rena popped her head out the window. She had globs of...something caught in her hair, and cooking knives in both hands. "Hey! Could you go get Ara for me? I think she's still meditating, over by the river." She noticed the confused look on my face. "Um...go left from the house and listen for a 'whoosh'-y river sound!" She gave a thumbs up and disappeared back inside the house.

_Is she stupid or just really, really happy?_ I didn't think on it further as, despite the teasing and mischief she could certainly cause, she had been kind to me. I began to walk towards the forest. Sure enough, I heard the small, soft sound of a river after reaching the tree line. I brushed aside some tall grass and continued forward, towards the sound of the river.

"Sorry...trying...Eun..." I heard the voice float through the air, though only a whisper. Before I could take another step forward, a massive shock of pain shot through my head. It was as if my skull was splitting in two on the spot. I fell to my knees, unable to even scream from the pain. I felt my left-eye pulse, adding to the pain. I closed my eyes and kicked and thrashed about in the grass. Finally managing to let out a scream only made it worse, the loud banshee cry relieved as much pain as it returned. _STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP MAKE IT STOP PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE._ I screamed in my mind and in reality. I kicked and swung my arms around, as if making contact with something real could make it stop.

Then, all at once, it disappeared. The pain subsided, left my head, as if it was never there in the first place. All I could feel was a tingle in my eye. I opened up my eyes and almost fell into more hysteria. The world had turned purple, but living thing were highlighted. Trees, bugs, fish, the girl standing near the river. _Oh!_ I ran over to where she was, carefully avoiding all the highlighted animals.

The girl was wearing an oriental looking dress. It had orange sleeves that were cut off from a white lacey top. "Hello?" She yelped and bobbled the hair pin in her hands. She slipped and fell backwards landing in...an 'open' position. She whined and rubbed the back of her head as I looked away and blushed. "A-Are you Ara?"

She stood up and brushed herself off, before smiling brightly. "Yup! Ara Haan, pleased to meet you." I had to look up to see her at eye level. I was short compared to most of these people, but Ara was slightly taller then them.

"Uh...Rena said it's time for dinner..." Ara gave a happy squeal before running off towards the cabin. Before she made it 3 steps, she tripped on root, and a branch grabbed her shirt, tearing it off on her way down.

"A-Ara! Crap..." I grabbed her shirt off the ground and ran towards her fleeting figure. _The hell does she eat!?_ She had already reached the tree line, busting through into the open area. She knocked on the door and I tackled her to the ground. The door opened to Rena, still wearing her apron and wielding her spatula.

"...Well aren't you two getting acquainted nicely." Rena giggled, and I noticed where my hands were. I freaked out and pushed off of her, landing near a small sparkling shard in the ground. Everything was still purple, but this had a small red glow to it.

Curiously, I reached out and plucked it out of the ground. I felt a small rush of power flow through me, before the shard disappeared. My hands burst into flames, and it ran up along my arms. Before I even thought about panicking, I realized something that unnerved me to my very core.

It didn't hurt.

* * *

We all sat at the table, eating the food Rena had prepared. She made herself a small salad, while the rest of us had...I guess it was somewhat-edible-meat. I could tell the others were in just as much pain as I was eating it. My light show had stopped after a few minutes, and my vision had returned to normal. Rena made me swear to talk about it at the springs later.

"How's the meal?" Rena asked, smiling brightly.

"G-Great as always!" Aisha said, trying to choke down a bite. Ara was playing with the meat, making it dance with her forks. Rena slapped her hands.

"Haha, sorry, forgot we were eating." My eye twitched a little, _How...how are you that scattered..._Elsword flicked a chunk and got it stuck in Aisha's hair. Aisha jumped out of her chair to tackle Elsword, but Raven plucked her out of the air by the back of her shirt. He set her back down, all the while still eating. Chung sat next to Eve who was telling him to sit up straighter.

Aisha had mashed up a glob and thrown it into Elswords hair. He attempted to reach for some from Chung's plate, but Chung mashed it into Elswords face. Eve deftly moved her food aside, but stopped when she felt meat splat on the back of her head.

"Eve sorry I meant to hit-" Moby crashed the rest of the platter of meat into Aisha's face.

"I will show you the true wrath of the Nasods if that's what you wish." Aisha let out a small yelp before ducking under Moby. Chung wrestled Elsword to the ground, while Rena tried to pry them apart. Ara tried to hold Eve back, but was only dragged around while she flew after Aisha. Raven simply wiped his mouth with a napkin, set his plate in the small tray that Rena would wash later, and went upstairs.

I sat there, still in my chair, watching as Aisha threw fire back at Eve, as Elsword blocked Chung's cannonballs, as Rena still yelled for everyone to calm down. I felt the fire returning to me as my anger rose. Finally I snapped.

"WOULD YOU ALL SHUT THE FUCK UP!?" I screamed, engulfing the small room in flames. Everyone froze, save for Elsword who exclaimed how cool I was. I could see my hair flowing around me, it had turned from a bright purple to a fiery crimson. _I could get used to this..._

* * *

**A/N: Fine fine, I pulled myself away from other projects. I'll stop being to lazy about writing chapters now. Sorry that this isn't the best, but I promise the next one will be a lot better ^^**

**As always, review if you have the time, reviews are what makes me like to keep writing.**

**Ryu was here~**


	5. I'll tell my own story

**A/N: THE FAMOUSLY ALLUDED TO HOT TUB SCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENE.**

**Fine fine, for those of you that are uncomfortable with suggestive themes (hehehe), this might have a bit of them. There'll be some valuable info in this chapter though!**

**Oh, and sorry, I tried keeping with the "I'll make me own..." theme, but it didn't work out so well when I was thinking of this chapter q-q**

* * *

Aisha reluctantly let the sheets drop to her sides, attempting to cover herself up with her hands. Rena laughed and pinched Aisha's cheek, "You're so friggin adorable." Rena let her sheets fall to the ground, stretching her arms. Aisha glared at Rena's chest, then looked back at her own. She plopped herself into the water, mumbling with her arms crossed over her chest. Meanwhile, Ara had been frantically running around, desperately trying to find her hairpin. I grabbed her by the shoulder, spun her around to face me, and pointed to the top of her head.

She sighed in relief, finding it nestled in her hair...where it always was. She sat down in the water next to Aisha, who glared at her chest furiously as well. Rena looked up at me, grinning. "Well? We're waiting for our show!" I looked down, blushing lightly. I didn't have a great body, I certainly wasn't as well endowed as Rena or Ara. Aisha at least had room to grow, I was seemingly as matured as I was going to get for a long time.

Grudgingly, I let the sheet fall to my feet, and flung myself into the water. The three started laughing at my desperate attempt to cover myself. Rena scooted over to sit next to me. "We saw everything hun, don't worry!" I groaned and looked down, trying to hide my blush.

Rena had led us to the hot springs after cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. She told me that after I told her everything I knew about myself, we would go pick out a weapon, then head to bed. Tomorrow was a big day apparently.

Ara clapped her hands together. "Alright, let's start shall we? What's your name? Where're you from? Are you from Elrios or from the same place as Aisha? Wha-" Aisha placed her hand over Ara's mouth, muffling her questions.

I had snapped up, however, when she mentioned where Aisha was from. "Wait, Aisha and me knew eachother?" Aisha shook her head.

"It's not likely, however I do know I'm not from this dimension, this is called Elrios. I can't remember anything about the other dimension, however. Just that I'm from it." I was shocked in the similarities between our problems, before remembering that Glave man had probably done the same to me as everyone else.

"Who else is from where we are?" I asked.

"Well, there's Eldork, me, and the aforementioned dorks' sister." Rena reached over and smacked Aisha on the forehead.

"Don't speak ill of that, it's tearing him up inside." Aisha stood up swiftly.

"Well I don't care about that brat at all! Not one bit!" Rena laughed to herself.

"Apparently you care enough to display your cute little body to us!" Aisha's face grew tomato red, before she plunged herself back into the water.

Rena turned her head to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. "Alright, well you need to explain that light show back at the house, then you can make a name for yourself." She smiled brightly. It worried me the way she said "make a name", until I realized I couldn't remember mine.

"...Ryukame." Everyone looked at me, eyes bright.

"Hm?" Rena asked, tilting her head to the side a little.

"I want to be called Ryukame." Ara clapped and cheered, Aisha smiled, and Rena gave me a hug.

"Ryukame it is! Now all that's left..." Rena crawled out, reaching into a small hole in the ground. "This hot spring is so warm because there's a large amount of Fire El sitting around it." She pulled out a small red shard and handed it to me.

I took it into my hand, and the familiar rush of power flooded through me. The world had turned purple again, but this time I could feel the power coursing through me. I could feel the hot sensations going down my arms, I could feel the ebb and flow of its force. I had more control over it this time.

Rena had moved to the other side of the pool, so that all 3 of the others were facing me. "Feel anything?" She asked.

In answer to her question, I opened my hand slightly. Not physically, but mentally. Almost as if telling the power to appear in the palm of my hand, and so it did. A bright flame appeared in my hand, and my hair took on the same crimson color it had been last time. I smiled, the flow felt natural, and peaceful almost. Me and the power inhabited the same body, shared a life in perfect harmony. It was much less scary now that I really focused on it.

"Yup! Just as I thought, you react to El." I tilted my head at the word El. "Oh, right, you're new around here." She cleared her throat before beginning. "You see, El is a shard comprised of living energy. Whether it be fire we use for heat, water we use to drink, air we breath, it's possible because El flows through the world. Sometimes, shards break loose of the massive boulders of El," she pointed to my hand, "like with that. It's not too rare to find them, but it's not like their common trade. It don't give off enough power to level a forest with fire or something, but some people like to use them as small sources of fire or air."

"It seems like something inside you is able to amplify the power through touch..." Aisha said, already pondering how this was happening before she finished.

"I wonder if it works with other shards..." Rena shook her head and looked back up to me. "Well, that's good for today, I suppose. Let's get back and you can pick a weap-" Rena stopped when she noticed I had crawled out of the pool already. An idea had sprung into my head that I wanted to try.

I clenched the El in my right hand, willing it to do as I asked. Instantly, a ball of fire shot out of my hand. The moment it hit, the boulder broke apart into dozens of pieces. I smiled, as Aisha and Rena clapped. Ara held a look of pure, child-like wonder. Eve simply nodded in approval.

"Well, that takes care of weapons then!" Rena said. "Tomorrow's a big day, Glave usually lets a day go by after the newcomers, then we get set off on whatever adventure he makes for us."

They started getting out of the springs, when I blurted out. "How many times have you all..."

Their faces darkened, and Rena looked down, her hair hiding her eyes. "...6 times...the adventure is different every time and...we've never completed it." She balled her fist and looked up, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"But...lucky number 7, right?"

* * *

**A/N: Soooooooooooooooo many plot holes q-q. It's funny how i've thought of every word i'll use in later chapters, the big plot twists and the big events, but I can never get small stuff down. So sorry for the bad chapters i'll write sometimes ^^;**

**Anyway, as usual, REVIEW!**


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